gerelmx1986
Headphoneus Supremus
Sony NWZ-A17 Negro (black colour)
Arrived earlier than expected, kudos to sony Mexico, again out of stock in the online store, i am lucky to finally have it
Physical (external facade) & build
This walkman is smaller than waht i expected to be, even slim than my previous Fiio X3 (SQ Vs fiio later
), IMO the Black color looks sexier than the Silver one, feels sturdy and well built, is plastic but overall thsi scream quality.
Measurements: Lenght: 10.6 cm approx, width: 3.9cm approx, height: 0.9cm, The unit did not fit my Fiio x3 case well due to it's slim thickness, there are no cases for it in Mexico.
Buttons feel well built not cheap, the SD card cover feels nice too but i think constant fiddling will make it tear apart IMO. Hold switch feels tight, thheadphone jack feels not as tight as the fiio one but well solid connection too.
UI & General user experience
In regards to UI this is phenomenal, love the traditional "Walkman OS", no fancy android stuff like web browsing and gimmicks, pure simple DAP.
Formatting the microSD in the player was my first step, there are two ways, SD card settings & Settings > Common Settings > Restore/Format > Format SD card, The walkman formats the card in exFAT (AKA FAT64), maybe because it is an XC card, Sandisk 128GB "older gen" 40MB/s UHS 1 class 10 bought from amazon.
Menus are so intutitve, not to name the use of physical buttons yay!, navigating thru 9707 flacs and there is no lag, no choppy transitions like fiio, all is fluid, so far no freezes. the Option menu changes depending on the screen, f.e if you are in a menu away from NOW PLAYING you can go back to now playing by pressing the Option/PWR OFF button, Not to mention the settings give you a little description of what it does f.e DSEE HX "Upsamples" the music to Hi-res quality even if its Compressed or CD-Quality, unlike previous walkmans you had to be guessing what each setting did to the music or to the system
The player offers plenty of settings, the music settings such as equalizer, sound eefcts and so, browing for music is so easy, you can browse by Album, all songs, artist, release year, Genre, and Folder browser mode where you can select either local storage or MicroSD (much like Fiios), you can fast-browse by pressing the < and > Buttons to select the starting letter of the aforementioned categories using the "alphabet browsing thingie"
Tranferring Content & Performance
Transferring content on this was seamlessly, but the annoying thing... User one or the other but not both as Music-Transfer (SD or system storage), so I used the MicroSD card after being formatted on the player in a an Adapter. I used MusicBee withouth problems.
Transfer speeds on the card were faster than the sony internal memory as evidenced on my previous post Mozart Collection 41.9GB 1 hour 50 minutes, while cherubini and Boccherini bith giving like 39GB trasnferred in 34 minutes or so. Yet this walkman internal memory speeds is faster than previous walkmans.
Library creation speed took it's time, but faster than the Fiio x3, even wth both memories filled to it's max, took like 4 minutes or so to scan 175GB.
MUSIC UI & SOUND QUALITY.
The music UI is the best out there, IMO, you have access to the settings such as equalizer etc in one button click. You can also display song info (advanced) in the OPTION Menu
At first look it appears as like fio x3, album art cropped, but nope, the progress bar, timing info dissapears after a short while and reappears after any button press.
The main screen shows the clock (if set), play status, battery status, BIG Album art (if set, otherwise the W logo), and the basic such as song title, artit(s) and album (older walkmans showr release year in addition to this)
This walkman no longer shows title chopping like the x1060, nor title limitation (60 chars in older walkmen), the scroll of the title is liquid flid, not choppy like fiiox3.
You can access the jacket (album art) browser by cliking the ↑ and ↓ Buttons this feature is nice if you have the jackets other wise only W's willbe displayed.
A17 continues to play the next Album after the previous one ends, does ot stops playback after the current album ends.
It plays 16 and 24 bit flacs seamslessly no problems so far. Getting to high volumes (to test his) and back to non-deafning levels
NO LAG on setting the volume quickly unlike fiio had a delay.
Sound, yeah sound quality, the icing on the cake for every head-fi impression/review, seems a standard to be left at the very end of the post.
First the long going disscssion (like a fierce btattle/protest) There's absolutely NO HISS, TOTALLY DEAD BACKGROUND, with both XBA-H3 & MDR-1R
This unit is far the best sounding walkma to date, even beats the venerable X1060 which i had (the most expensive walkman i have purchased to date at $ 7,999 MXN back in 2009). Definitively gets rid of the warmish & "Digital" signature sony used to had. It's neutral, no emphasis at any frequency Pinnocks Harpsichord playing of Haydn Harpsichord concerto No. 11 is so delightful, the bdeep bass notes of the harpsichord decay in proper times, the highs of this instrumnet sparkles and the orchestra blends wel wit a nice accurae soundstage. Fiio had a wider soundsatge but i deemed to be not accurate.
The EQ seems to have effects but i can't tame the bassy H3's damn, if sony had a more bands in it's equalizer, below 400Hz (0.4Khz in sony eq) i could probably ave tamed he H3.
In contrast the MDR-1R stil retain their neutral signatute, being my reference point, tough, XBA-H3 is my reference to compare it against FiiO X3 as i did not had the 1R's when i had the X3. The 1R's playing the Harpsichord conceto of Haydn, continung to the 2nd movemet.. accurate sounds, harpsichord/ochestra well balanced, the orchestra does not "shadows" the harpsichord at all, lively performance DSEE HX OFF (16/44.1), you can hear the violns at the back, left, the oboes clearly at the right, harpsichord well positioned that it sound is outputted in both channels clearly giving this wonderful accurate sondstage, ABSOLUTELY NOSIGNS OF HARSHNESS AT ALL, even when fiddling with the EQ to try to tame the H3's (maxed 16KHz, 6 6 2, of coure ruining sound, I gave up LOL)
Oboes sound like oboes, hors like french horns, unlike older sonys (well to be honest in those times i used only mp3 at 192Kbps CBR), luckyly times of mp3 fone since 2012 I professed to FLAC. With older walkmans i osometimes had trouble identifiying certain instrumnest, often confused flutes with oboes or clarinets, violins sometimes with oboes, Horns with with a trombone, some timesThi concerto the harpsichord was shadowr totally muted. A17 is rendering this "buff" (lute) stop so clear on the bass registers and the tump tump tump of the double bass.
VS FIio x3, iPod.
ONE NOTE: This walkman is a Progressive-JPEG Buster or other-than-jpeg-format in the cover art, Had to fix three covers that had this problem, from perhaps 400 albums
24-bit files sound ******* awesome, massive accurate details & soundstage (my favorite test album Alessandro Striggio: Mass for 40 & 60 voices), sounds heavenly as being there, even the H3'retrieve such level of details but the bass hump destroys the life-like being there experience, have to use 1R for this
Compared to iPod classic 160GB, aside from having 32GB more (mine 175.9GB with microSD), the sound quality is miles ahead, detailed, life-like sound, gets the most of my FLAC files, not signs of apple's signature of lifeless flat sound.
Compared to the Fiio x3, this maybe not as musical for others (if you meant by so the warmer signature of the x3) I deem to be as equally as musical and enganging in such rich detailed sound in both 16 and 24-bit resolutions, feeling the sony has a richer presentation, with no coloration (unless i use the XBA-H3, tought they seem to be tamed better than with the fiio)
Gapless works super, i had this alleluja motet in the middle of the Missa "sopra ecco si beata giorno" and i didn't note the transition from the alleluja (which by my fault splitting the 24 bit flac took a part of the Credo part of the mass), smooth and silky. i didn't note it until i saw the screen.
Soundsatge is better than the Fiio x3, wide, slightly wide than the fiio but yet accurate, with the fiio i had a sense of endless depth and sometimes the female singers of this mass were placed "above" my head very unnatural.
The sony has a wide and accurate soundstage, giving me the sence of a definite church/cathedral on the striggio album, the voices are placed accurately in an accurate way no longer above my head, just as you had the chorus and you were sitting watching them sing for you, the brass instruments sound in both channels creating the blissful suttound sound, so enveloping, that this 24-bit Album you can heard voices as far in your "back" so impressive all the 60 voices in the Agnus Dei I-III
I find this walkman despite having an underpowered amp section, to be a worthy competitor against the fiio in SQ, wow here comes the solo female in the benedictus ooohhh and then the male bass enters to accompagn her, more voices get slowly added wow, the A17 renders thi screw* accurately GOD this is blissful if i turn off my lights and close my eyes, I am at the Cathedral with THEM!, feeling like i ma Herve Niquet, layer after layer of music added slowly to imitate Tallis SPEM IN ALIUM grand MOTET with no distortion proper echo deccay. Can't wait to hear Talli spem in alium on the sony (tought 16/44.1).
Vivaldi's 6 concerti for Anna Maria, also, 24/88.2, sounds as equally as good, layers of musical enjoyment, the orchestral and the solo violin, no longer Have i the innacuracies of imaging of the fiio x3.
Cesar Franck's complete organ works in 24/96 are a total bliss of polyphonic detail, accurate that you can distinguis the registers out of the blend of pipes, deccay impressive accurate reverb O_o, giving you the impression oyu ar listening to those pieces for real in a recital.
Clearly both XBA-H3 AND MDR-1R need AMPLIFICATION to sound wayyy better than are right now, also, i am still burning-in my A17 (got it yesterday night). Saving for the Oppo HA-2 amp
, i m not saying the player sounds bad withouth an amp, despite able to deliver deafning levels on both phones, and deliver great sound better than fiio, I feel those cans shall outleash their potential to the MAX, specially the H3's.
PROS
Arrived earlier than expected, kudos to sony Mexico, again out of stock in the online store, i am lucky to finally have it
Physical (external facade) & build
This walkman is smaller than waht i expected to be, even slim than my previous Fiio X3 (SQ Vs fiio later
Measurements: Lenght: 10.6 cm approx, width: 3.9cm approx, height: 0.9cm, The unit did not fit my Fiio x3 case well due to it's slim thickness, there are no cases for it in Mexico.
Buttons feel well built not cheap, the SD card cover feels nice too but i think constant fiddling will make it tear apart IMO. Hold switch feels tight, thheadphone jack feels not as tight as the fiio one but well solid connection too.
UI & General user experience
In regards to UI this is phenomenal, love the traditional "Walkman OS", no fancy android stuff like web browsing and gimmicks, pure simple DAP.
Formatting the microSD in the player was my first step, there are two ways, SD card settings & Settings > Common Settings > Restore/Format > Format SD card, The walkman formats the card in exFAT (AKA FAT64), maybe because it is an XC card, Sandisk 128GB "older gen" 40MB/s UHS 1 class 10 bought from amazon.
Menus are so intutitve, not to name the use of physical buttons yay!, navigating thru 9707 flacs and there is no lag, no choppy transitions like fiio, all is fluid, so far no freezes. the Option menu changes depending on the screen, f.e if you are in a menu away from NOW PLAYING you can go back to now playing by pressing the Option/PWR OFF button, Not to mention the settings give you a little description of what it does f.e DSEE HX "Upsamples" the music to Hi-res quality even if its Compressed or CD-Quality, unlike previous walkmans you had to be guessing what each setting did to the music or to the system
The player offers plenty of settings, the music settings such as equalizer, sound eefcts and so, browing for music is so easy, you can browse by Album, all songs, artist, release year, Genre, and Folder browser mode where you can select either local storage or MicroSD (much like Fiios), you can fast-browse by pressing the < and > Buttons to select the starting letter of the aforementioned categories using the "alphabet browsing thingie"
Tranferring Content & Performance
Transferring content on this was seamlessly, but the annoying thing... User one or the other but not both as Music-Transfer (SD or system storage), so I used the MicroSD card after being formatted on the player in a an Adapter. I used MusicBee withouth problems.
Transfer speeds on the card were faster than the sony internal memory as evidenced on my previous post Mozart Collection 41.9GB 1 hour 50 minutes, while cherubini and Boccherini bith giving like 39GB trasnferred in 34 minutes or so. Yet this walkman internal memory speeds is faster than previous walkmans.
Library creation speed took it's time, but faster than the Fiio x3, even wth both memories filled to it's max, took like 4 minutes or so to scan 175GB.
MUSIC UI & SOUND QUALITY.
The music UI is the best out there, IMO, you have access to the settings such as equalizer etc in one button click. You can also display song info (advanced) in the OPTION Menu
At first look it appears as like fio x3, album art cropped, but nope, the progress bar, timing info dissapears after a short while and reappears after any button press.
The main screen shows the clock (if set), play status, battery status, BIG Album art (if set, otherwise the W logo), and the basic such as song title, artit(s) and album (older walkmans showr release year in addition to this)
This walkman no longer shows title chopping like the x1060, nor title limitation (60 chars in older walkmen), the scroll of the title is liquid flid, not choppy like fiiox3.
You can access the jacket (album art) browser by cliking the ↑ and ↓ Buttons this feature is nice if you have the jackets other wise only W's willbe displayed.
A17 continues to play the next Album after the previous one ends, does ot stops playback after the current album ends.
It plays 16 and 24 bit flacs seamslessly no problems so far. Getting to high volumes (to test his) and back to non-deafning levels
Sound, yeah sound quality, the icing on the cake for every head-fi impression/review, seems a standard to be left at the very end of the post.
First the long going disscssion (like a fierce btattle/protest) There's absolutely NO HISS, TOTALLY DEAD BACKGROUND, with both XBA-H3 & MDR-1R
This unit is far the best sounding walkma to date, even beats the venerable X1060 which i had (the most expensive walkman i have purchased to date at $ 7,999 MXN back in 2009). Definitively gets rid of the warmish & "Digital" signature sony used to had. It's neutral, no emphasis at any frequency Pinnocks Harpsichord playing of Haydn Harpsichord concerto No. 11 is so delightful, the bdeep bass notes of the harpsichord decay in proper times, the highs of this instrumnet sparkles and the orchestra blends wel wit a nice accurae soundstage. Fiio had a wider soundsatge but i deemed to be not accurate.
The EQ seems to have effects but i can't tame the bassy H3's damn, if sony had a more bands in it's equalizer, below 400Hz (0.4Khz in sony eq) i could probably ave tamed he H3.
In contrast the MDR-1R stil retain their neutral signatute, being my reference point, tough, XBA-H3 is my reference to compare it against FiiO X3 as i did not had the 1R's when i had the X3. The 1R's playing the Harpsichord conceto of Haydn, continung to the 2nd movemet.. accurate sounds, harpsichord/ochestra well balanced, the orchestra does not "shadows" the harpsichord at all, lively performance DSEE HX OFF (16/44.1), you can hear the violns at the back, left, the oboes clearly at the right, harpsichord well positioned that it sound is outputted in both channels clearly giving this wonderful accurate sondstage, ABSOLUTELY NOSIGNS OF HARSHNESS AT ALL, even when fiddling with the EQ to try to tame the H3's (maxed 16KHz, 6 6 2, of coure ruining sound, I gave up LOL)
Oboes sound like oboes, hors like french horns, unlike older sonys (well to be honest in those times i used only mp3 at 192Kbps CBR), luckyly times of mp3 fone since 2012 I professed to FLAC. With older walkmans i osometimes had trouble identifiying certain instrumnest, often confused flutes with oboes or clarinets, violins sometimes with oboes, Horns with with a trombone, some timesThi concerto the harpsichord was shadowr totally muted. A17 is rendering this "buff" (lute) stop so clear on the bass registers and the tump tump tump of the double bass.
VS FIio x3, iPod.
ONE NOTE: This walkman is a Progressive-JPEG Buster or other-than-jpeg-format in the cover art, Had to fix three covers that had this problem, from perhaps 400 albums
24-bit files sound ******* awesome, massive accurate details & soundstage (my favorite test album Alessandro Striggio: Mass for 40 & 60 voices), sounds heavenly as being there, even the H3'retrieve such level of details but the bass hump destroys the life-like being there experience, have to use 1R for this
Compared to iPod classic 160GB, aside from having 32GB more (mine 175.9GB with microSD), the sound quality is miles ahead, detailed, life-like sound, gets the most of my FLAC files, not signs of apple's signature of lifeless flat sound.
Compared to the Fiio x3, this maybe not as musical for others (if you meant by so the warmer signature of the x3) I deem to be as equally as musical and enganging in such rich detailed sound in both 16 and 24-bit resolutions, feeling the sony has a richer presentation, with no coloration (unless i use the XBA-H3, tought they seem to be tamed better than with the fiio)
Gapless works super, i had this alleluja motet in the middle of the Missa "sopra ecco si beata giorno" and i didn't note the transition from the alleluja (which by my fault splitting the 24 bit flac took a part of the Credo part of the mass), smooth and silky. i didn't note it until i saw the screen.
Soundsatge is better than the Fiio x3, wide, slightly wide than the fiio but yet accurate, with the fiio i had a sense of endless depth and sometimes the female singers of this mass were placed "above" my head very unnatural.
The sony has a wide and accurate soundstage, giving me the sence of a definite church/cathedral on the striggio album, the voices are placed accurately in an accurate way no longer above my head, just as you had the chorus and you were sitting watching them sing for you, the brass instruments sound in both channels creating the blissful suttound sound, so enveloping, that this 24-bit Album you can heard voices as far in your "back" so impressive all the 60 voices in the Agnus Dei I-III
I find this walkman despite having an underpowered amp section, to be a worthy competitor against the fiio in SQ, wow here comes the solo female in the benedictus ooohhh and then the male bass enters to accompagn her, more voices get slowly added wow, the A17 renders thi screw* accurately GOD this is blissful if i turn off my lights and close my eyes, I am at the Cathedral with THEM!, feeling like i ma Herve Niquet, layer after layer of music added slowly to imitate Tallis SPEM IN ALIUM grand MOTET with no distortion proper echo deccay. Can't wait to hear Talli spem in alium on the sony (tought 16/44.1).
Vivaldi's 6 concerti for Anna Maria, also, 24/88.2, sounds as equally as good, layers of musical enjoyment, the orchestral and the solo violin, no longer Have i the innacuracies of imaging of the fiio x3.
Cesar Franck's complete organ works in 24/96 are a total bliss of polyphonic detail, accurate that you can distinguis the registers out of the blend of pipes, deccay impressive accurate reverb O_o, giving you the impression oyu ar listening to those pieces for real in a recital.
Clearly both XBA-H3 AND MDR-1R need AMPLIFICATION to sound wayyy better than are right now, also, i am still burning-in my A17 (got it yesterday night). Saving for the Oppo HA-2 amp
PROS
- Sound quality neutral, beating the fiio x3 on this.
- Accurate soundstage & instrument placement
- Great UI & User exeprience overall, zero lag, easy to read font
- Great flawless FALC Playback (gapless works great), revealing with 24 bit & well mastered 16-bitters
- well built
- Capacity to expand via Mammoth 128GB microSD rivaling iPod classic on this matter (175.9GB after formatting both card & flash memory)
- Equally loud as the fiio x3
- Works with MusicBee
- Annoying microSD implementation of select-your-storage-when-connecting-to-PC
- Needs an amp to shine at it's best with some phones *cough* XBA-H3 *cough*
- still being USB 2.0... come on sony.... my 128GB card was a cheetah compared to this
- Lack of accesories, Mexico is not the only one caseless, WMC-NWH10-less... needless to say
), IMO the Black color looks sexier than the Silver one, feels sturdy and well built, is plastic but overall thsi scream quality.
